Clip Joint barbershop ends era before new beginning

PORTSMOUTH — Twenty-eight years of watching the world go by from inside their Pleasant Street barbershop came to an end Thursday for the ladies at the Clip Joint.

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By Charles McMahon

seacoastonline.com

By Charles McMahon

Posted Feb. 28, 2013 at 3:26 PM
Updated Feb 28, 2013 at 3:29 PM

By Charles McMahon

Posted Feb. 28, 2013 at 3:26 PM
Updated Feb 28, 2013 at 3:29 PM

» Social News

PORTSMOUTH — Twenty-eight years of watching the world go by from inside their Pleasant Street barbershop came to an end Thursday for the ladies at the Clip Joint.

The popular downtown barber shop, which for nearly the past three decades remained at 92 Pleasant St., is not closing however. Instead, the downtown business is moving only a few blocks away.

Beginning around March 7, the barber shop will re-open in a new space at 30 Daniel St. The space is currently the home of FA Gray Inc. paint and wallpaper business, which is expected to move to a new location on West Road .

Longtime barber Sandy Cole joined a handful of the other ladies at the downtown barber shop during the last day on Thursday.

Cole said the major change in scenery has thus far been bittersweet. Having worked there for the past 17 years, Cole said the final day featured a mixture of emotions.

“We're moving on to our next chapter,” Cole said.

The Clip Joint was first opened in 1980, and for the first five years it operated at 414 State St. The business moved to 92 Pleasant St. in 1985.

Cole and the nine other female barbers had been looking for a new home since the fall. Fortunately, not long after getting the word out to the community, the ladies received an offer from a downtown property owner looking to help them continue the legacy of The Clip Joint.

“It's been a part of downtown way too long for it not to be down here,” she said. “We're just so thrilled we all have a place to go to.”

Janine Moran, who has been working at the barber shop for the past 28 years, said the move is most exciting because of the fact that she and the other ladies are all doing it together.

“We're taking all of us with us,” she said. “That's the important part.”

While plans aren't to open in the new space until March 7, the ladies at the Clip Joint said they will be busy over the next several days moving all of the equipment to their new home.